World Chess Partnership proposal to Free TON
Brief description
“Chess is the sleeping giant of the sports/entertainment world.”
Steve Martin
CEO of M&C Saatchi Sports
World Chess Plc was incorporated in 2017 and specializes in various activities related to chess sport, including the organization of top-level tournaments, operation of the official online gaming platform of International Chess Federation and other sport and lifestyle activities related to chess. Even though the Company was formally incorporated in 2017, the World Chess project and first activities date back to year 2012.
As part of this partnership proposal World Chess will develop and implement a Chess Guide system based on Free TON and will do promotion of Free TON inside its ecosystem.
Chess Guide is a distributed system for storing and processing records of chess players, chess games, tournaments and chess organizers. It will have APIs for connecting a wide range of game chess resources, transparent and open logic of data processing, real-time execution, as well as the ability to perform financial transactions in the system (for example, pay for subscriptions to FIDE services, fees for participating in competitions and other functionality).
Detailed description of the system is presented in the Addendum.
In addition DeBot and Telegram bot Chess game implementations connected to the Chess Guide system will be developed. A Free TON based loyalty system will be developed to stimulate users play chess more often and will be integrated into World Chess products and into Chess Guide system.
Marketing for the Free TON Partnership
The List of tools that may be used to promote the partnership subject to regulatory requirements (direct promotion of the Free TON project might be restricted in some jurisdictions) and current contract obligations of World Chess, which restrict promotion of the Free TON partnership at some of the events until the end of Q1 2021. After this there will be no restrictions except of some regulatory requirements as stated above. These tools will be employed where appropriate and justified to promote the partnership as well any products resulting from this partnership. World Chess intends to work with the opinion leaders of the Free TON community to further identify and develop other opportunities to integrate the Free TON solution and structure communication to promote the interest in the partnership.
PR
— Communication to the chess community of the opportunity
— Presence of the project in major events World Chess organizes or participates in
— Interviews in broadcasts and programs that World Chess runs
— Special activations that World Chess runs
Marketing
— Presence of the initiative in branding
— Community engagement in countries and on a national level
Advertising
— Tournament organization with prizes and incentives
— Media partnerships where possible or relevant
— Newsletters among members
— Newsletters among partners
Total media reach is likely to reach 1 billion contacts over the course of 2 years.
World Chess’ Mission
World Chess’ mission is to reinvent the game of chess and make it a part of a modern intellectual lifestyle. The company is challenging the traditional fossilized approach to chess by introducing next generation formats of chess events and online chess gaming, higher standards tournament organization and are working to introduce new partners from different industries to sport of chess. World Chess wants people to feel that chess is very accessible to everyone and at the same time we want it to encourage progress and help sharpen players’ skills.
About World Chess
The Company’s main activities include development and commercialization of projects connected with chess. This has been largely credited to the recent surge in chess popularity. The company is a long-term commercial partner of the International Chess Federation (“FIDE”) and holds exclusive commercial rights to the FIDE Grand Prix Series, which is a key part of the World Chess Championship Cycle and also has commercial stakes in the FIDE Candidates Tournament and the FIDE World Chess Championship. It also holds long-term exclusive rights to the official FIDE online gaming platform. Apart from this, World Chess develops its own independent projects both for professional sportspeople and for amateur players.
World Chess organized some of the most memorable chess events in recent history, including the World Chess Championship Match in New York in 2016, which was called the sporting event of the year, and the World Chess Championship Match in London in 2018, which generated over 2.9 billion media contacts. The group has expanded into online chess gaming, acquiring a company that holds exclusive long-term rights in relation to the FIDE gaming platform. In 2019, World Chess introduced chess to prime-time TV, developing the ‘Armageddon Series’, a chess competition filmed in a virtual reality studio and made for television. It became one of the most successful mind sports broadcasts to be featured on the Russians top prime-time channel.
Market Overview
Chess players represent one of the largest communities in the world. As confirmed through a study by the authoritative polling organization YouGov, more than 600 million (!) adults play chess regularly - a number comparable to regular users of Facebook and at least 70% of the adult population polled across varied national demographic profiles (US, UK, Germany, Russia and India) has played chess at some point during their lives. And even those who only played the game as a child still retain a deep admiration for the game.
What is most surprising is that the percentage of adults who currently play chess (either weekly, monthly or during the past year) is 12% in the UK, 15% in the U.S., 23% in Germany, 43% in Russia, and 70% among the 121m Indians considered ABC1 by advertisers. 6 mln, 35 mln, 16 mln, 50 mln and 85 mln people in the UK, US, Germany, Russia, and India, respectively, play chess regularly and more than half are 18-34 years old.
Although chess has very low barriers to entry and is played across the socioeconomic spectrum, in the US 78% of regular chess players are university graduates and 21% are from families with an annual median income of $120,000 or more. Furthermore, despite their popular image as reclusive ascetics, chess players consume immoderately. In categories traditionally used to measure affluence (automobiles, watches, air travel, branded alcohol consumption, online purchasing), global research organization TGI (WPP) reports that chess players are 40-100% more likely to purchase a luxury item than a non-chess player.
Across the board, chess players and non-players alike rank chess significantly higher than any other game or sport for attributes such as intelligence, sophistication, strategy, perfection and complexity, confirming top branding agency Pentagram’s statement that, “Chess is about Thinking and Winning.”
Community Contests for World Chess integration
Free TON is a community driven blockchain. The following activities will be initiated as part of this partnership:
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Smart contracts Contests – Chess Fabric Contest for a set of chess smart contracts templates.
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Chess DeBots Contests – create DeBots for enhanced user experience within Real Time Chess Explorer and other community client libraries and interfaces.
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User ID design and subsystems – design and implementation of different parts of User ID architecture.
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Integration Contests – design and implementation of external service integration.
As part of the preparation for this partnership Free TON has run a series of tests for chess related smart contracts and subsystems during the “Validator Games” on the testnet. The chess Grandmasters’ profile smart contracts were deployed, and historical tournaments were replayed between those contracts in real time. Tens of thousands of games have been recorded in real time on a public test network. Those contracts will be used as a reference for Chess Fabric.
Token distribution schedule
For its commitment for integration and substantial communications and education campaigns within the chess and gaming community World Chess will get 4 million TONs after the approval of the proposal. Integration is expected to take from eight to twelve month due to technological complexity.
An additional 2 million TONs will be paid upon achievement of the following result (KPI#1):
• User ID — an authentication module using TON SDK, remote HSM service, formally verified multisignature wallet and TON secure enclave;
• Partner Access for owners of chess web services via TON SDK and Chess Validator Nodes;
• Blockchain platform — data storage and processing core of the system, the logic of smart contracts agreed with the administrator open to any observer; Chess Fabric is a set of contract templates that helps organizers publish chess smart contracts;
• Real Time Chess explorer — a website for any observer to search and view available information in the database.
Additional 2 million TONs will be paid upon achievement of the following result (KPI#2):
• External services — provide access to a number of external computationally complex services, for example, an anti-cheating module (provided by a 3rd party), which will provide access to necessary 3rd party system functions;
• 3rd-party services (payments, CRM, CMS) — the system is able to integrate with external services to perform business functions via TON SDK.
Additional KPI performance based on: 1 000 users = 3,000 TON Crystals, with an overall cap of 100 million TONs.
Addendum
Technical Document for the development of «Chess Guide»
Introduction
Chess Guide is a distributed system for storing and processing records of chess players, chess games, tournaments and chess organizers. The main difference from competitors should be an API for connecting a wide range of chess game resources, transparent and open logic of data processing, real-time execution, as well as the ability to perform financial transactions in the system; for example, pay for subscriptions to chess platforms services for fees to participate in competitions and other future functionality).
The resulting technical solution will be used by World Chess on FIDE Online Arena - the official gaming platform of International Chess Federation
Group of users
• End users are the largest group of users. Whey will use the system to find necessary information and pay for certain services in the Chess Guide;
• Owners of chess web services - developers and integrators of chess game services. They will use the Chess Guide API, identify their users in the system, download the games played including chess tournaments. They act as a showcase for paid services on the platform. They themselves can place paid services in the system, e.g., master classes, their own paid tournaments.
• Chess administrators are specialists who regulate the rules for using the services. They will evaluate the quality of chess services, e.g., the rules of chess games) and the services provided. They act as the suppliers of a number of paid chess services (payment for chess titles).
• System developers - developer specialists who refine the system’s services. They will maintain the system’s performance, search for and fix errors. They will also monitor information resources such as possible anti-cheating mechanics, as well as, chess player and event organizer reliability. For their contributions they will get paid with digital currency.
System overview → The architecture of Chess Guide can be schematically illustrated by the following diagram (Figure 1).
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The product consist of the following parts (modules):
• User ID — an authentication module using TON SDK, Remote HSM service, formally verified multisignature wallet and TON secure enclave.
• Partner Access for owners of chess web services via TON SDK and Chess Validator Nodes;
• Blockchain platform — data storage and processing core of the system, the logic of smart contracts agreed with the administrator, open to any observer; Chess Fabric is a set of contract templates that is helping organizers to publish Chess Smart Contracts;
• External services — a number of computationally complex services, for example, an anti-cheating module, that provides the necessary system functions;
• Real Time Chess explorer — a website for any observer to search and view available information in the database;
• 3rd-party services (payments, CRM, CMS) — the system is able to integrate with external services to perform business functions via TON SDK.
Usage scenarios
In this section, we will point out typical scenarios that users can take into account when developing their first iteration(s). Obviously, the system improves, so too can use cases be supplemented.
For end users
Scenario 1: “I want to play on any site”
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Users come to any of the partner chess web services;
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Users are authenticated by a single account;
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Users being authenticated from any 3rd party web-service can play with any other user;
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Any chess platform authorizes the user, loads their rating, opens credentials, the base of games played;
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Users play on chess platforms. The games are played and the change in rating goes to the blockchain.
Scenario 2: "I want to play for an official rating" (e.g. FIDE rating)
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Users come to any of the partner chess web services;
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Users are authorized;
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If the user does not have an official rating game subscription, the user can pay for the subscription;
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After receiving the subscription, the platform must open access to the game for the official rating;
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Games for the official rating are also recorded in the blockchain. They are mandatory tested for possible anti-cheating mechanics. The blockchain platform calculates the rating change based on the results of the games and reports changes to the platform.
For owners of chess services
Scenario 3:“Come to my cool tournaments”
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Developers of chess web services are integrated with the system;
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They can run their tournaments with the participation of any authorized user from all chess web services;
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Using API, publish information about their tournaments in the system;
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Carry out marketing campaigns to bring users to tournaments;
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Users from any chess resource come to participate in the tournament, and if necessary, pay tournament fees;
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Users must be able to get access to any live tournament from any chess service no matter who authorized them;
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The organizer holds the tournament. The tournament table and related information is recorded in the blockchain;
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Any outside observer can access information about the tournament through the data explorer.
Scenario 4: “Come to the master classes of my gross”
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Developers of chess web services are integrated with the system;
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Using the API, they publish information about events held , including lectures, master classes or streams of their top participants, all in the system;
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Carry out marketing campaigns to bring users to events;
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Users from any chess resource come to participate in the event, and if necessary, pay for access.
For administrators
System Monitor script
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On a regular basis, administrators control the logic of smart contracts; for example, rating rules, time breaks in tournaments, parameters of the anti-cheat module;
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All found violations / shortcomings are recorded in the internal system (bug tracking);
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Discovered violations are assessed;
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Violations accepted for execution are transferred to the system developers for elimination.
Requirements
This section groups various product requirements into the following categories:
• Business requirements - determine the purpose of the software: described in the white paper and project presentations, define the boundaries of solution applicability.
• User requirements - define a set of user tasks that the product must solve, as well as ways (scenarios) for their solution in the system.
• Functional requirements - describe the functions to be performed by the developed software;
• Non-functional requirements - describe how the system should work and what properties or characteristics it should have;
• System requirements - a description of the approximate characteristics that a computer (or infrastructure) must meet in order to be able to use the developed software.
Business requirements
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The system should provide an opportunity for players to log in on any platform and gain access to a single account;
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For users with an official rating subscription, game processing should provide the ability to calculate an online rating and check games for possible cheating;
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The system should keep the history of chess games, players’ results and chess tournaments;
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The system must be able to accept payments;
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The system must provide an API to connect any chess site;
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The system must provide public data stored in the registry to outside observers;
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The logic of smart contacts must be available for inspection by outside observers.
For end users
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The user wants to have access to any chess site, despite the fact that he is not registered into each one;
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The user wants to have a unified rating score and a history of all games that user participated in, so as not to have to “pump” account details from each chess site;
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The user wants to play for the official FIDE rating on any chess site in order to compete in a familiar environment;
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The user wants to have access to the open history of all games any chess player played in order to study and prepare for future games with that person;
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The user wants to have access to any tournament on the site in order to take part in it/them, toenjoy the game or to compete;
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The user wants to know that the games of his opponents are verified for any possible cheating in order to be sure of fair play
Owners of chess services (playgrounds)
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The sites want to simplify the user authorization procedure so that more people can come to them;
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The platforms want to know more about users, in particular, their rating, party history and open data in order to offer them their targeted services;
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The sites want to provide an opportunity for users to play in the official ratings in order to make their sites more attractive;
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The sites want to check the games of their users for possible cheating and restrict access to cheating in favor of reputation;
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Users want to hold paid events and attract more people to earn money
Administrators
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Administrators want to have access to the user base, including their history of games in order to monitor compliance with the rules of the chess community;
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Administrators want to control the rules of the game for official ratings in order to identify the best players and perhaps invite them to the official tournaments, as well as to increase the reputation of online rating.
Functional requirements
For convenience, functional requirements have been categorized by specific subsystems.
Non-functional requirements
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The system must be designed to store and process data for at least 1 million players;
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The processing time for most requests should be no more than 5 seconds (the time between the end of the game and the opportunity to start a new game);
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API for 3rd-party web services must support versioning, and also be understandable and easy to implement
System requirements
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Common technologies and programming languages are allowed.
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Solution will be open source.
Our wallet address:
0:699117330be791ca887beda5f62ae3d98107885d3f9eb2a760f5caebba45e01e
The Sunday Times, published 27 May 2012 - If poker can make it on telly, so can chess;
The Daily Mail, published 10 November 2012 - Can this man do for chess what Bernie Ecclestone did for Formula 1?;
Financial Times, published 23 November 2016 - Chess makes a move to become commercial success;
The event was organised by one of the World Chess Plc subsidiaries - World Chess US, Inc. (Delaware, USA) prior to the incorporation of the holding company;
GQ Magazine, published 23 November 2016 - Forget football… chess is the truly beautiful game;
Match TV Channel, published 10 June 2019 - «Матч ТВ» покажет первый полностью снятый в студии виртуальной реальности шахматный турнир «Армагеддон»;
YouGov research on chess - https://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS_2012/FIDE/120806_YouGovPressRelease.pdf
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